COFA Associate Professor selected for inclusion in Drawing Prize | The College of Fine Arts
Staff Highlights
COFA Associate Professor selected for inclusion in Drawing Prize
Article released: Wednesday, 28 February, 2007
COFA extends its congratulations to Associate Professor Emma Robertson from the School of Design
Studies for her inclusion in the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing. Living Fossil: The Natural History of the Ginkgo Biloba
was selected for inclusion in the prize by 2003 Dobell Drawing Prize winner Aida Tomescu.
Emma's current research focuses on a series of drawings on a set scale, which explore ideas
and images about memory and loss. Her most recent drawings on memory have used the subject of
endangered
plant species, and have also featured the boxes of collectors, or the instruments of
scientific analysis. Recent scientific study of the many medicinal properties of the Ginkgo Biloba
have suggested a possible use in the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease, so the concept of memory in
this Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing entry has two possible interpretations - that of the use of
the plant to treat human memory loss, and of the importance of the Ginkgo Biloba to the collective
memory of the world.
The following is an extract from the artist's statement:
There are currently over 19,000 endangered plant species in our
world, including some which have not yet been discovered. As the world faces the reality of climate
change and global crisis, the Ginkgo Biloba symbolises hope in an era of uncertainty. It is
classified as a Living Fossil - a species which has survived major extinction events over long
periods of time. In the case of the Ginkgo Biloba, it has a history dating back more than 270
million years. This drawing honours this ‘ascendant species’ through a depiction of its life cycle,
both in fossil form and in our own era.
The Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing opens March 1, 7pm at Adelaide Perry Gallery and
continues until March 30.
The award is to be presented by artist Wendy Sharpe.